Le Chant Des Fauves - a collection of music of the Sahara
The idea behind the collection is to use music as a media for bringing to the attention of the Western public information about the conditions of life (or survival) of the Saharan people, citing, amongst other things, their political, climatic and social circumstances. Much of this information, such as the obscure policies of France in Africa, is not covered by mainstream media.
In addition to discovering good music, we want to offer "smart records" to those who wish to go further, and to break a few folk clichés inherited from colonisation (for example, the blue man on his camel).
Our CDs are always accompanied by booklets rich in detail (including in download format). We have used the expert knowledge of anthropologists, ethnologists, historians, activists etc to provide the in depth knowledge that we wish to share.
At an economic level, we wish to provide a means to allow these artists and their families to live a better life through their music.
Reaktion is structured as an association, based on volunteerism. The money gained is used to pay royalties to the artists (which are well above the conventional label standard) and self-finance our projects. This simple and chargeless system allows us to work outside the usual marketing structure of the music industry as we have no obligation to produce results.
We are also developing sales by download only, which means we can afford to invest more of our capital in our artists. It also makes it possible for us to release more recordings, including those with low commercial potential, intended for people interested in the subject rather than the mass market.
In artistic terms, we do not want to format the artists to Western tastes as we see so often with "world music". Instead, our dream is that through information, Westerners can adapt themselves toward the music and way of life of these populations.
Since 2008, we have released 3 albums by Tuareg artists ('Ishumar', Terakaft, Azawad) and one of a Sahraui artist (Aziza Brahim). Current projects involve young Tuareg musicians.
During the preparatory work for the compilation 'Ishumar', we realised how difficult it was to find information about Tuareg music, with the exception of leading bands like Tinariwen or Tartit. That is how we came upon the idea of creating a site that would be like a large database of artists and recordings. The site is collaborative and we encourage everyone to share their knowledges with the community.
In addition to the musical aspect, we offer a selection of narratives, links to related websites, biographies ,filmographies, and a glossary explaining some musical terms. This is a multimedia site with hundreds of titles streamed on Radio Tamasheq and a selection of videos to be watched on TV Tamasheq.
We also develop our own content with a few interviews with musicians made specifically for tamasheq.net.
Finally, the online shop offers a small selection of CDs, DVDs, books and mp3s, many of which can't be found anywhere else.
'Imidiwan' - the radio show
Radio show in french broadcasted on the algerianwebradio Radio Dzair, and as a podcast on iTunes.
Listen to the radio show of the current month :
Voilà nos nouvelles : - Le concours Musique d’Afrique du Sahara est ouvert du 1 au 15 octobre : Musiciens, partagez avec nos internautes votre meilleure composition. Amateur de musique, partagez avec nous le lien vers la plus belle composition que vous aimez écouter. Voir comment participer sur notre page. - Dès le 15 octobre, c’est le concours Musique d’Afrique du Sud qui s’ouvre. - Les participants au concours Musique d’Afrique du Sahara :
à voir: Laurence Philippon, photographe, est partie au mali où elle a rencontré des musiciens. A travers son blog, elle nous montre la diversité culturelle maliene. Des artistes tels que : Afel Bocoum, Boubacar Traoré, Bassekou Kouyaté, Samba Touré... Son expo, prévue pour 2010, sera un mélange de sons (interviews et musiques) et d'images (portraits, paysages) voir son blog : http://laurencephilippon.blogspot.com
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